US: Time to expand international coalition against ISIS

German minster of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, center, smiles when United States Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, left, shakes hands with the Turkish minster of Defense Hulusi Akar, right, during the International Security Conference in Munich

The top Pentagon official said Friday he foresees a
"bigger and stronger" American-led international coalition combatting ISIS group globally as the US withdraws its troops from Syria.

Pat Shanahan, on his first trip abroad as the acting
secretary of defense, made his comment after meeting in Munich with
representatives of the dozen or so countries that provide troops in Iraq and
Syria.

"While the time for US troops on the ground in
northeast Syria winds down, the United States remains committed to our
coalition's cause, the permanent defeat of ISIS, both in the Middle East and
beyond," Shanahan said in remarks to reporters.

The US has about 2,000 troops in Syria and about 5,200 in
Iraq.

President Donald Trump's decision in December to pull out of
Syria angered some allies, confounded US military officials and prompted Jim
Mattis to resign as defense secretary.

Gen. Joseph Votel, who as head of US Central Command is
overseeing military operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said last week
that he was not consulted before Trump made his decision.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Votel went a step
further, saying, "It would not have been my military advice at that
particular time ... I would not have made that suggestion, frankly."

CNN quoted him further as saying ISIS "still has leaders,
still has fighters, it still has facilitators, it still has resources, so our
continued military pressure is necessary to continue to go after that
network."

Votel is leaving his post shortly.

Shanahan said the United States will "continue to
support our local partners' ability to stand up to the remnants of ISIS,"
but he did not explain how that will be done.

A senior defense official, speaking later, said Shanahan did
not discuss a timetable for the US withdrawal from Syria, which other
officials have said is expected to be completed in April. The coalition
partners did not take issue with the US withdrawal, indicating they see it as
an irreversible decision, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
to discuss the closed-door talks.

The focus of the meeting, on the topic of Syria, was how to
avoid a security vacuum once US troops are gone, the official said. No
representatives committed to keeping troops there after the US leaves,
raising the possibility of clashes between Turkey — a US NATO ally — and the
US-backed Syrian fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which
suffered heavy casualties in fighting ISIS. The Turks view the Kurdish members of
the SDF as terrorists and a treat to Turkey.

In his public remarks, Shanahan said that in Syria, ISIS has
lost most of its leadership and resources — though he didn't say it's lost 100
percent of its territory.

"Together, we have eliminated the group's hold over 99
percent of the territory it once claimed as part of its so-called
caliphate," he said. "We have ensured ISIS no longer holds the
innocent people of Syria or Iraq in its murderous iron fist."

ISIS militants are holed up in the last sliver of land in
eastern Syria as US-backed forces are closing in.

As ISIS retreats in Syria, some worry that substantial numbers
of its fighters could migrate beyond the Middle East, to Africa, for example.

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of US Africa Command,
said in an interview with a small group of reporters Friday that he is not yet
seeing evidence of ISIS movements into Africa, although he said this cannot be
ruled out.

Shanahan said he and his counterparts discussed the future
of their coalition, which was developed during the Barack Obama administration
after US forces took on ISIS directly in 2014 with a return of US troops to
Iraq as advisers and the start of a bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria.

"I, for one, envision an even bigger and stronger
coalition going forward — one that has evolved to meet the global threat posed
by ISIS's offshoots and its murderous ideology," he said. It needs to look
beyond Syria and Iraq to face the militants' broader threat in other parts of
the world including Afghanistan and the Philippines, he said.

The senior defense official said Shanahan was not referring
to increasing the number of members in the coalition — now totaling 79 — but
rather adding to the quality of their contributions, including non-military
offerings.

Ursula von der Leyen, the German defense minister and host
of the Munich meeting, said there was agreement among participants that the
fight in Iraq and Syria is not over.

"ISIS is changing its face at the moment, going more
underground and building up networks there, including with other terror groups,
partly in a global network that they are trying to expand underground,"
she said.